"Last week, Yasmin Williams announced a free show at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on September 18. Now the Virginian composer and guitarist-who posted screenshots of a heated email exchange with Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell in April, and later elaborated on the experience in an interview with Pitchfork-has shared a statement explaining her decision."
""I'm doing the show for all the Kennedy Center staff who formed their own union and are still working there, fighting to maintain the institution's integrity," she wrote on Instagram. "I'm doing it for the folks who were unjustifiably fired. I'm doing it for the elderly ushers who were told to not wear masks publicly while working, even facing backlash from higher ups if they wore one.""
Yasmin Williams announced a free performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on September 18. Williams says the performance was planned prior to President Donald J. Trump's overhaul of the Kennedy Center board of trustees. Williams dedicates the show to Kennedy Center staff who formed a union, to employees fired without justification, and to ushers who faced pressure over mask-wearing. In February, Trump named Richard Grenell interim executive director and dismissed all 18 Democratic appointees. Numerous artists cancelled performances and some advisors resigned amid the leadership shakeup. Williams previously exchanged emails with Grenell about hiring and staffing changes.
Read at Pitchfork
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